Easter row prompts eggs-coriating satire with a few cracking jokes

Digital reporter

A fierce debate over a National Trust and Cadbury Easter egg hunt has prompted ridicule from commentators.

Both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn were critical of a decision to drop the word "Easter" from the annual egg event - with the Prime Minister branding it "absolutely ridiculous".

But Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said the pair had "got egg on their faces" after criticising Cadbury and the National Trust "for something they haven't actually done".

The National Trust described claims it had downplayed the significance of the festival as "nonsense" while the chocolate giant said it was "simply not true" to claim Easter did not feature in its marketing.

Mr Farron said: "Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn have got egg on their faces today.

"They both scrambled out eggs-traordinary statements criticising Cadbury's and the National Trust for something they haven't actually done.

"This is a eggs-tremely big distraction. I think we all feel poached by this whole sorry saga, but none of us more so than Cadbury's and the National Trust, who have done nothing wrong and are right to feel egg-rieved by the criticism they have received."

The row unfolded after the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu spoke out about the decision to name the event "Cadbury's Great British Egg Hunt".

Speaking from Jordan on her Middle Eastern tour, Mrs May, whose father was the Rev Hubert Brasier, vicar of Enstone in Oxfordshire, told ITV News: "I'm not just a vicar's daughter - I'm a member of the National Trust as well.

"I think the stance they have taken is absolutely ridiculous. I don't know what they are thinking about, frankly.

"Easter's very important. It's important to me. It's a very important festival for the Christian faith for millions across the world.

"So I think what the National Trust is doing is frankly just ridiculous."